Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Cheap dates work for me!

This is my first post for Works for me Wednesday-- hopefully the first of many. I think it's an awesome idea for ladies to share tips and hints online!

My hint comes out of our awesome anniversary this year-- number seven! Things are always tight in the summer for us, so finding something fun, special, but inexpensive is key. This year we decided to have an "at home anniversary". Earlier in the day we went to Martin's (a grocery store around here with a nice selection of gourmet foods) and bought a selection of cheeses, wines (paired according to label recommendations with the cheeses), olives and italian sausage. We rented a romantic comedy and sent the kids to bed early. We lit candles and ate at the coffee table in front of our movie. It was so wonderful! Better food by far than anything we could have afforded at a restaurant, no babysitter fees and we could stay "out" as late as we liked! Our total "bill" for our night out was right around $50. (the leftovers fed a "girl's luncheon" the next day)

We tried it again later in the summer with friends-- wine, cheese, olives and bread for five adults cost less than $75. No cooking and very little clean-up required for a classy, classy evening with friends. (And we had enough left over to have a few nice evenings "in" for the two of us after that. )

By comparison, last week we went out and even with free babysitting from a friend, appetizers, drink and a movie cost us $60!! We are sold on this new kind of dating-- especially since we found out that Martin's now has fresh-made-daily sushi and an antipasto bar! I highly recommend it to any of you that cringe when you think of the cost of spending special time with your spouse. I'm sure there's a gourmet food place in your town, and shopping for the food and planning the wine and cheese parings is soooo much fun!